admin I just realized that I’ve never needed to use 31th or 31st in my four years English study. So which one is correct, and what about other alternatives? 31th or 31st 101th or 101st 1001th or 1001st Can I also use that way everywhere in the same way (for example, ordinal numbers in math)? Answer … Read more
I am developing a business application in which the user can select from one of these options, namely “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly” or “Yearly”, for scheduling appointments. I need to create a field in the database to hold this value, but am at a loss for what to name the field. What would be the collective … Read more
In my opinion, “Think badly of someone” is right. But when I was watching a Vietnamese film with English subtitles “Think bad of me” was used. Answer Certainly, think badly of is grammatical and idiomatic here. Macmillan has: think badly of someone PHRASE to have a bad opinion of someone or something Nobody will think … Read more
(Note that I originally asked this question on the English Language Stack Exchange and was told that it belonged here (Interpersonal Stack Exchange), so I removed it from the EL SE and manually moved it here.) I am a data scientist and I regularly receive e-mails from people (our office is split between London and … Read more
I am a native speaker of AmE. I understand when and where to use their vs theirs, etc. etc. (i.e. Don’t migrate this to ELL!). I’ve searched the site and google, and I have not quite seen an answer to my question. Etymonline describes the word theirs as: possessive pronoun, "their own," early 14c., from … Read more
I was watching a film with subtitles, and the phrase: “Will you grab her blanket?” sounded like “We’you graber blanket”. I’m Ok with “graber”, but can we drop “l”-sound in “will you”? Answer In a comment, John Lawler wrote: Will you is virtually always contracted to /’wiyu/. In fact, will by itself is almost always … Read more
Are there only four demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, and those in English, or are there more like thik which is a variation of this and that? Answer “Hither, page, and stand by me If thou know’st it, telling Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?” “Sire, he lives a good league … Read more
On the other side of the room, Miles hit the button that automatically unlocked the front door. Then cracked the one leading into the building, the sound of heavy footfalls climbing the steps. What i got is that means the sound of how he lead into the building? Answer crack the door OED definition and … Read more
He’d been dashing out of Chamberlain’s class over and over again for fake bathroom breaks, bolting down the hallway and out the door, a gust of wind, only to find…nothing. No monster. No mutant. No madman. Just Brooklyn being Brooklyn, left with a new awkward excuse about what took him so long in the bathroom. … Read more
Are they three? Can it be in proper English, things, or is it more correct to use “Are there three?” or “Are there three of them?” Is it hypercorrection or some are more natural than the other ones? Answer The construction “We are [a number]”, referring to a group of people, is unusual but possible, … Read more
